MV ''Highlanders'' (ex-MV ''Stena Traveller'') is a Ro-Pax passenger/vehicle

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

operated by the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Crown corporation Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

Marine Atlantic. She operates between the islands of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

and Cape Breton in eastern Canada and is named after several Nova Scotian infantry regiments which fought in the first and second world wars. Largely built in Russia, her assembly was finished in Norway. As part of Stena Line she regularly ran between The Netherlands and the United Kingdom from 2007-2009. After being leased by Marine Atlantic, she was taken to Bremerhaven, Germany to be converted to better suit the North Sydney to Channel-Port aux Basques route, which she would be taking over. This conversion included the addition of a third

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

, increase and renovation of the passenger areas, and shortening of the vessel by 12m to help facilitate docking at Channel-Port aux Basques. She entered regular passenger service with Marine Atlantic in mid April 2011 shortly after her nearly identical

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

. In May 2015, Marine Atlantic announced that it had purchased both vessels from Stena for

Can$ The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...

100 million each.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Highlanders 2006 ships Ferries of Newfoundland and Labrador Ferries of Nova Scotia Marine Atlantic Ships built in Russia Ships built in Rissa, Norway